ORLANDO — Count Jalen Ramsey among the numerous Miami Dolphins defenders not shedding any tears over Vic Fangio’s departure.
Ramsey, appearing here Friday ahead of his seventh Pro Bowl, spoke for the first time about Mike McDaniel’s decision to say goodbye to Fangio after one grumpy season.
Ramsey made his crystal thoughts clear by pausing for a good five seconds when asked to react to Fangio’s exit.
“I wish Vic well in what he does,” was all Ramsey could finally get out. (Fangio is now the Philadelphia Eagles defensive coordinator, the job most believe he wanted all along.)
More Vic Fangio Reactions From Miami Dolphins’ Jalen Ramsey
Thankfully, Ramsey was just getting started.
He had far more pointed thoughts on Ron Jaworski’s recent comments. The former Eagles quarterback-turned-broadcast analyst, appearing on Philadelphia sports talk radio, basically suggested Dolphins players who didn’t get along with Fangio were lazy.
Why are Jaworski’s remarks important? Because he’s been friends with Fangio for four decades, and most outside observers made the reasonable inference that Fangio was his source.
“If Vic said that, then I would say that he should be man enough to address who it is,” Ramsey said. “I don’t think Vic said that, though. Personally, I don’t think Vic would do that. And I disagree. Just because I know what we were about.”
“I know how I worked for damn sure,” he added. “And I know how I led the other guys in that secondary, and I know how we worked. But yeah, at the same time, yeah, we weren’t couch potatoes. We didn’t go in the house all the time. Like I worked harder than — I’ll stand on the table and say I worked harder than anybody out here right now.
“But tonight, I’m going to be with my homies, and we’re going to chill, and we’re going to do whatever we’ve got to do. And tomorrow, I’ll be back at practice doing my thing again. So you got to have a balance in life in general, but when it’s about work and when it’s about football, you do have to be about football. But I don’t think he said that because I don’t think that’s how it was around here this year.”
Jalen Ramsey Discusses Miami Dolphins’ DC Search
It’s fair to say that Fangio and Ramsey didn’t see eye-to-eye. The Dolphins don’t want a repeat of that dynamic in 2024, which is presumably why they asked Ramsey’s input on who should replace Vic as DC.
An intriguing name? Brandon Staley, who was Ramsey’s defensive coordinator with the Rams in 2020.
MORE: Will OT Terron Armstead Play in 2024?
“We were the No. 1 defense in the whole NFL when I was with coach Staley,” Ramsey said. “So it was a good experience. You know, he was one of the first coaches to really use all of my abilities, and so that was nice. I really got to express who I was. That was probably my best year in my career.”
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